


Adventure on the High Seas

by cordeliadelayne



Series: All At Sea [1]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Action/Adventure, Becker Swordfighting, F/M, Jess Swordfighting, Jess is No One's Damsel, Pirates, Swordfighting, jess is awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-25
Updated: 2016-09-25
Packaged: 2018-08-17 04:03:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8129753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: Becker and Jess find themselves fighting for survival on a pirate ship.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [deinonychus_1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deinonychus_1/gifts).



> Written for deinonychus_1 who wanted Becker sword-fighting.
> 
> Originally posted to Livejournal in 2011.

Jess had been a fan of role-playing games for as long as she could remember. Before she got her first computer – after months of begging her Dad for one – she used to corral her younger brother and his friends into games in the street. Of course that was before her brother went to live with their mum and Jess started devouring every computer programming book she could lay her hands on.

Her Dad had been a very practical man – before the stroke that eventually killed him – and although he encouraged Jess' study of the theoretical side of computing, he'd made sure that she had a good grounding in the practicalities too. Computer clubs, colleges courses – where she was the youngest student by miles -, private tutoring, apprenticeships with local businesses, he'd helped her arrange and pay for them all. But he'd also wanted her to be well-rounded and not spend all her life behind a desk. Which is where the fencing lessons came in.

At nine years old Jess' dad had sat her down and asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. The answer – a pirate – had been immediate. So the next day she'd taken up fencing lessons, the closest she ever thought she'd get to real pirates.

* * * * *

Becker's life had been mapped out for him long before his mother got pregnant. Long before his parents had met, even. He'd always known that Sandhurst was the ultimate goal and it had been drummed into him so successfully that he could almost believe it had all been his idea in the first place.

His mother at least had wanted him to be well-rounded and she passed on her love of reading, especially of Robert Louis Stevenson, to Becker. Sometimes, when it all got too much for him and his knuckles felt too raw – saddled with a name like Hilary he got into an awful lot of fights at school – he'd disappear up into the tree house his father had instructed him to build.

He'd spend hours up there devouring books. His favourites were those that involved pirates. Sometimes he'd act out the scenes he'd just read about – but only when he was certain that there was no one around to see. He didn't connect his mother arranging fencing lessons for him with his sessions in the tree house until years later.

It was the closest he ever thought he'd get to real pirates.

* * * * *

“What happened...ow,” Jess muttered. She sat up, tentatively prodding at the lump she could feel forming on the back of her head. One minute she'd been in the ARC, helping Connor with some modifications to the Anomaly Detection Device, and the next thing she remembered was the blare of alarms.

“Anomaly in the ARC,” Becker said, and Jess relaxed a little. At least she wasn't on her own in this place. Whenever it was.

“What year do you think we're in?” Jess asked. She started to look around but froze when Becker placed a hand firmly on her shoulder.

“16th century,” Becker replied. “Maybe 17th”.

Jess frowned and finally looked in the direction Becker was staring. “Oh,” she said, taking in the figures rapidly approaching. “I've always wanted to meet a pirate.”

She slipped back into unconsciousness before she could register Becker's curious expression.

* * * * * *

“Ow...again,” Jess said. She opened her eyes to find she was lying in some sort of bunk bed covered by a blanket. And someone was holding her hand.

“About time,” Becker said, squeezing her hand. “I thought you were going to sleep the whole day away.”

“How long have I been out?” she asked as Becker helped her to sit upright.

“Too long.” He glanced towards the closed door and then back at Jess. “I don't think we've got much time, so I'm going to need you to be brave.”

“Brave? Why – what's happening? Where are we?”

“On a pirate ship,” Becker replied. He looked as if he couldn't decide between showing excitement or concern. “The pirates took us from an island we washed up on. As far as I could tell the anomaly was floating just above the sea.”

“And the anomaly...”

“Somewhere that way,” Becker said, indicating the distance behind them with his free hand.

“Do you know where we're heading?” Jess asked. She was determined not to show Becker how worried she was. If only her hand would stop trembling.

“Not exactly,” Becker said. “But I do know what they want to do with us.”

“I won't like it, will I?” Jess asked.

Before Becker could do any more than shake his head the door to their cabin burst open and an angry looking man with a thick red beard stormed in.

“Well? Have you said your goodbye's then?” the man demanded.

“Goodbyes?” Jess squeaked, squeezing down hard on Becker's hand.

“This is Captain Redbeard,” Becker said with a grimace. “He's offered us an opportunity to be dropped off on the next available plot of land.”

“If you follow t'rules of the game,” Redbeard interrupted.

“Game?” Jess asked, her stomach dropping. “What's he talking about?”

“He wants me to fight him, with a sword. I win, we get to leave.” Becker paused and glared hard at Redbeard.

“And if he wins? What happens then?” Jess demanded. Becker couldn’t look her in the face. “Becker? What does he get if he wins?

“You,” Becker said at last. “If he wins, he gets to keep you.”

* * * * * *

“It's barbaric, that's what this is,” Jess said. Redbeard had grabbed her and after much struggling sat her down on a barrel and told her to be quiet; a directive she was quite happy to ignore.

The other pirates were gathering around Becker, enjoying the look on his face each time they boasted about what exactly they were going to do to Jess once Becker inevitably lost.

Some of the expressions they were using were inventive enough that Jess felt her face go bright red from embarrassment, made worse by the fact that she couldn't seem to do anything about it.

Once the crowd's jeers had died down Captain Redbeard began to make a rousing speech, but Jess didn't hear any of it – she only had eyes for Becker.

And he was exactly the same, staring at her to the exclusion of everything else until he marched right up to her and pulled her into a kiss that left her breathless and weak-kneed.

“Everything's going to be fine. I know my way around a sword.”

Jess was going to point out her own proficiency with a sword, but then thought better of it and merely nodded.

* * * * * *

It soon became clear that Becker hadn't been exaggerating when he said he knew his way around a sword. He moved with a deftness and competence that was doing delicious things to Jess' insides. And made it more than obvious to everyone watching that their Captain had no chance of winning in a fair fight.

So they started cheating.

At first it was just the crowd moving in a little too close, making Becker pull in his elbow or become distracted enough that Redbeard could place a cut along his cheek or on his chest.

Jess had screamed the first time Becker's blood was drawn, but that only made Redbeard fight all the harder, so every time Becker became wounded she dug her nails into her palms instead, to stop from shrieking or rushing over there to put an end to the fight herself. She hated sitting there, watching. Heroic as Becker was being it did make her feel like a weak little damsel in distress.

She did plan, though, as Becker parried and thrust, sweat dripping down his face as he gained the upper hand through skill and then lost it through duplicity.

Jess couldn't believe that a man as honourable as Becker was letting this charade continue. But as she moved around – no longer the centre of anyone's attention – she saw the gleam of cutlasses and the bloodthirsty eyes of the crew. Even if Becker did win the fight, no longer a sure thing, she didn’t think either of them were going to make it out unharmed.

It was when Jess had made it half way around the crowd of men baying for more of Becker's blood that she spotted her opportunity. She nearly hadn't heard it – that familiar chug of a motorised boat – but Becker had fallen on to one knee and the crowd had been momentarily silenced as Redbeard lifted his sword and begin to bring it down towards Becker's head.

Jess had nearly stopped breathing herself, until Becker had performed a very impressive looking roll and managed to regain his feet as Redbeard stumbled and nearly fell himself.

But the sound of impending rescue had been too much longed for for Jess to miss it.

She hated to do anything that might distract Becker in any way, but she knew that knowing help was on its way could be the very thing to save Becker's life.

So Jess took a deep breath and grappled the sword away from the man in front of her, and then pointed with her free hand towards the boat that was rapidly gaining on their position. “Becker, look!”

As she'd feared, Becker's reaction was immediate, turning away from the fight for a few precious seconds. But then he quickly grinned at Jess and deftly disarmed Captain Redbeard with a flourish, as the other man attempted to gut him.

The other pirates snarled and snapped and one made to rush at Becker. He was stopped in his tracks though as Jess kicked off her shoes and moved to deflect the blow that would surely have done Becker some serious damage.

Becker's face was a picture of surprise which then merged into bemusement as he stared at Jess efficiently dispatching first one pirate and then another before he snapped out of it and began to fight himself.

“Get starboard,” Becker shouted, edging closer to Jess.

“Left?” Jess asked.

“Right,” Becker said, nudging her in that direction. The pirates were fast approaching, which meant they had very little time in which to make their escape.

“I hope you swim as well as you fence,” Becker said, as he pressed Jess into the side of the ship. “Because we're going to have to jump.”

“I do a lot of things as well as I fence,” Jess replied with a wink.

Becker grabbed her hand and dropped his sword, motioning for Jess to do the same to hers.

“I look forward to finding out the full range of things you do well,” he said, kissing her quickly, and then tumbled over the side of the ship with Jess pressed close to his side.

* * * * * *

“Ow,” Jess said. “This is becoming horribly familiar.”

“Bad familiar, or good familiar?” an amused voice asked her.

She opened her eyes fully to find herself in the infirmary at the ARC with Becker seated next to her hospital bed, holding her hand. She smiled at him, taking in the cuts to his face, the bruises and the dirt, and imagining that she looked no better herself. But Becker was smiling right back at her and then leaning down for a gentle kiss.

“Good familiar,” Jess said, when Becker had moved back a little, “definitely good familiar”.

Becker leaned forward for another kiss but Jess put her free hand up to stop him.

“Just one thing,” she said. Becker tilted his head curiously.

“Oh? What would that be?”

“No more pirates.”

Becker laughed at Jess' serious expression, which she failed to keep up for more than a few seconds. “All right, I think I can live with that. No more pirates”.

Then he pulled her into a kiss, and all thoughts of pirates were completely forgotten.


End file.
